TCM will be broadcasting NOAH’S ARK on April 4, 2018 that will commence a month long spotlight on the films of director Michael Curtiz. Here is some background on the making of the film adapted from MICHAEL CURTIZ A LIFE in FILM

 

Michael Curtiz signed a contract with Warner Bros. while directing a film in France in 1926. After Curtiz disembarked in New York City, he had an extended conversation with Harry Warner about the biblical movie that the director had broached when the pair first met in Europe. Harry assured his new director that production would commence on his epic shortly after he arrived in Hollywood and met with brother Jack who was head of production at the studio. Curtiz was thrilled and continued working on his outline, titled Noah’s Ark, while on the train to the West Coast.

Beverly in Movieland

book review by Beverly Gray

March 23, 2018

 Book Review by Mark Burger January 24, 2018MICHAEL CURTIZ: A LIFE IN FILM by Alan K. Rode. Published by University Press of Kentucky. 630 pages. $50 retail.

 

Given his many classic films – which include Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and Casablanca (1943), to name only a few – there’s no such thing as a quintessential Michael Curtiz film, nor did he evince a specific directorial style. There are filmmakers today whose work is referred to as “Hitchcockian,” “Capra-esque,” “Spielbergian,” “Tarantino-esque,” “Kubrickian,” or “Hawksian,” but Michael Curtiz has no such designation.

Yet this prolific filmmaker, with over 180 credits to his name, made some of the most revered films of their time, if not all time – in any number of genres. He made gangster films, grand adventures, horror films, musicals, melodramas and period pieces. If there was a film to make, he’d make it – usually with antagonizing cast, crew, and studios along the way. For a remarkably long period, he got away with it, simply because he got results. Love him or hate him – and people were squarely divided –Curtiz was a moviemaker. This was his life, making the subtitle of Alan K. Rode’s epic biography a most appropriate one.